Liberty House Page 13

  A friend she hadn’t seen in fifteen years, a friend killed, and a broken brother all in one night.

  Suddenly, she had seen enough. She put the painting back and set the Bible on the table. She looked at her own drawing then threw it across the room. She wanted to cry.

  Did Sawyer know? He had to have known. He was the one who got Cole the job of working with Maverick. She was going to get answers from him.

  Cole walked in, “Hard at work?”

  She looked up and nodded, unable to speak. Her sketchbook was beside her and her pencil was dull.

  Cole walked over to her and grabbed her hand. “I want to show you something, Tommy.”

  She looked at his hand. How many times had she held that hand as a child? How many times did she want to hold it again? She took his hand, strong and firm. Like he was. He led her out to the porch and pointed to the north pasture.

  Andrew had brought his extra broodmares over from this part of Silkwood. There were six foals playing together. Three drafts and three-quarter foals. They were mix-matched colors and sizes. Just like her family. Though like them, one day her family might leave too. If they found out the truth, they would leave for sure.

  Cole looked at her with concern, “You alright, Darlin’?”

  Tommy nodded and smiled lightly. Though she did not feel it. She was going to go talk to her brother. And then kill him. Slowly. Just like he did to her heart.

  The still of the night sent chills down Tommy's back as she snuck out of the house. She had laid in bed till the wee hours in the night. Her eyes never closing, her mind never shutting down or wanting too. She went out of the window and ran to the barn. She didn't bother with a lantern. The moon was bright, and she knew her way around.

  After saddling one of the smaller horses, she mounted and headed to where she had met Sawyer a dozen times. The place wasn't too far, but she wanted to ride. Maybe that would clear her mind. She hadn't ridden since the fire, but she missed it. She rode quietly out of the barn, and when she got out, she rode as if her life depended on it.

  Cole woke up. What did he hear? He heard it again, so he moved to the window. He thought he saw someone riding away. He couldn't tell who or on what horse. He got dressed and went to check on Tommy. He went downstairs by the little moonlight and saw Tommy lying in bed. But the window right above her bed was open. That was odd. It wasn't hot in here. He decided to shut it.

  When he got closer, he saw that the person lying in the bed was made of pillows. His sister had pulled that one too many times and almost always had been caught. He knocked on the guest bedroom. "Andrew, Katrina, get up!" Cole cried. He banged on Isaiah's door. Isaiah had stayed over. "Isaiah, get up!"

  "What?" Andrew muttered half in his sleep.

  "Tommy's gone."

  That statement got Andrew's attention, and he got up. "What?" he repeated.

  "She's not in her room, and I saw someone ridin’ away. Andrew, ride into town," he ordered, "and get Maverick. I'll have Isaiah get Owen, Frank, and maybe Ellen."

  "Okay." Andrew got up and almost walked out in his long johns, but Cole stopped him. "You might want to get dressed first."

  "Right." He said. He put his pants on and then went out.

  Katrina slowly got up.

  Cole walked out to see if the girls were awake. Gloria was in the kitchen getting the coffee going. She was surprisingly calm for her sister being missing.

  "There was no note, so she didn't run away," Gloria stated.

  "Has she before?" Cole asked curiously.

  "Not in many years. We always went after her, or she came back."

  "What do you think happened then?"

  "She went to meet Sawyer, " Gloria said matter-of-factly.

  "She does it often?"

  "More often when life is hard. She has been acting odd lately."

  "Always at this time of year?"

  Gloria thought about it. "Yes, come to think of it. She and Sawyer have been doin’ this runnin’ away too many times to change. When we see she's gone, we wait until she comes back, or we go look for her. We will go look this time." She sighed.

  "Bein’ the older kin sometimes is tough, ain't it?" Cole more said than asked.

  "Bein’ kin is hard for a normal sister or brother. Try two sisters who have been abused. I know I have my share of problems, but doin’ this act is crazy." She motioned outside to the late night. Gloria got a snack out for the brothers to eat when they got there. They all like to eat all the time, but Cole knew they probably wouldn't eat until they knew Tommy and Sawyer were all right and well.

  Thirty minutes later, all the family was there. They all knew Tommy, so they decided to look in the woods behind the house where she normally met Sawyer. They left Susan and Isaiah home in case Tommy came back and in case of danger came their way. The rest of them headed out.

  They found Sawyer in the woods near a lantern hanging in the tree, his horse tied to a tree. He was waiting for someone. Around him, Spanish moss hung in the trees like it locked him in except for one opening. Gloria was right: they had done this before. Not two minutes later, Tommy came riding up in that one opening. She looked furious.

  Cole got close enough where he could hear them talk. None of them showed themselves hiding behind moss. Tommy was glaring at Sawyer, and Sawyer was looking at her with a painful face.

  Cole watched as Tommy got down, tied her horse to a tree, then walked over to Sawyer, and slapped him.

  Sawyer looked away then back at her.

  "Why didn't you tell me?" she cried.

  “About what?” Sawyer asked, but his face looked like he knew.

  “Who Cole really is!” Tommy yelled.

  "I didn't know how to. I'm sorry. How did you find out?" Sawyer asked.

  "I casually saw my painting in his Bible. It has no blood on it," Tommy said softly. Then glared at him. "I don't believe you. Why’d you lie to me?"

  "You weren't ready to know, nor was Cole when he came."

  ‘What’s Sawyer talking about?’ Cole wondered to himself, but waited to hear the rest of the conversation.

  She sighed, "How does Cole not know who I am?"

  "I lied to him too...sort of," Sawyer told her.

  "How did I not know? I kept remembering a way. I have been having dreams I haven’t had in years of him." She looked thoughtful. "Wait. Cole is Mexican. How does he hide it?"

  How did she know he was Mexican? He studied her, her hair, those blue eyes, and her attitude. No, it couldn't be. And what didn't he know? Fool, oh how he had been a fool.

  "How did he hide in the past? Notice he never stays past May and comes back in October. He goes to Colorado or Texas where they know his color."

  "Does any of the family know about Cole's past?" Tommy asked.

  "They know just about everything but he is a friend of one of the children. That he has been looking for you since he was old enough."

  "You mean he looked for us."

  "0f course, they all did, Juan Jose, Uncle Hugo. All of them looked for years."

  Cole felt like someone had kicked him in the stomach. Tommy was his best friend from the past. He tried to deny he hadn't known all these years but, in his heart, he knew it was true. Everything made sense now. And he was an idiot and didn't know. He knew it had been true. Tommy was his childhood friend. He closed his eyes and let the tears burn. His best friend had been so close for so long, and he didn't know it.

  He made sure he didn't look around at the others, not that he could see them in the dark. What they must think? How was he going to make it through this night? He felt ill.

  Tommy looked like she was going to cry. Sawyer hadn't seen her this emotional in years. He felt bad for not telling her the truth, but he didn't see how he could.

  "I thought his family was dead, the whole Mexican Coopers and the bad Coopers." Tommy cried, her face full of confusion and sorrow. They lost so much as children.

  "Where did you hear that?"

  She crossed her a
rms. "The newspaper that came out when Cole had just come here. It said all the Coopers were dead, including the Mexican Coopers."

  "Oh, I thought you knew the truth on that."

  "I had no reason to think they weren't dead," she told him.

  "That's why you never thought of his siblings' names."

  She nodded. "I kept thinkin’ of that newspaper, and I made myself forget for Cole and the past, in a way. He always went by Cowboy anyhow. How does he own the train? Oh, my word… We used to tease that he would own the train when he was the last Texan alive."

  "Somethin’ about the Will. They messed up on it, so he got everything."

  Tommy's eyes got wide. "You mean everything, even the saloons and such?"

  "How do you think Liberty House came about?" Sawyer said.

  "He started Liberty House. You mean…" She shrugged, "We're not the only ones with secrets, huh?"

  "You could say that again," Sawyer told her. "He also kept our money for us and moved into the big house."

  Tommy shrugged like anything he told her wouldn’t matter as much as finally finding out the truth.

  "Cowboy meant more to you than people thought, huh?” Sawyer drawled.

  "Oh, yeah. He was the first boy I kissed," Tommy said longingly as she thought of the past.

  Sawyer gave her a pointed look.

  "All right, the only boy I kissed," Tommy admitted. She hugged herself tighter, like she was enjoying the only hug she would ever get.

  Sawyer smiled. "Y'all did more than fight huh? When did you do this kissin’?”

  Tommy's eyes narrowed at him. "On my seventh birthday at the rodeo. He had just ridden that stupid horse-"

  "Hey, don't bash that horse we rode," Sawyer told her. “Ridin’ that thing was the most painful thing I ever did.”

  "You two were crazy. Why’d you ride them anyway?"

  "I did because he did, and he did it to impress you. We both agreed silently to never ride again. I couldn't sit for a week."

  "I bet Cowboy and you could barely walk for a week." She paused and closed her eyes like she was remembering the memories she had with Cole in her mind, like it happened yesterday and not fifteen years ago. "We were behind the rodeo stand when suddenly, he leaned her over and kissed me. He told me our parents missed out on kissin.' I ran all the way home. I never told anyone. You’d have teased me, and Izzy would’ve said it was yucky."

  Sawyer chuckled, "Ooh, who knew he was sweet on you."

  Tommy sobered, "I missed him so much. If we had stayed, I would have probably married Cole, and you would have gotten Annie."

  Sawyer shook his head, "No, Cole and I would have left when we got old enough. It wouldn't have mattered if we left y'all behind, we hated our pas. I wanna ask you somethin'?"

  She nodded looking afraid of what he might say.

  "When did you figure out what the Coopers did?"

  Tommy looked at the ground, kicked a stick with her boot, "A case Maverick worked. Then the newspaper right before Cole came. I was shocked, I never knew about the white slavery they did. But it made sense, too much sense. I thought about tellin’ the family because I thought the men hadn't even started coming after us."

  "But you didn't."

  She nodded, looking up at him. Trying to figure this all out, "You got the job for Cole to come here when you knew who he was."

  "Course I knew," Sawyer said. "I went up there for some business that Maverick wanted me to do, it was in Dallas, so I just went to Coopersville, which is now Remediation."

  "How’d you reunite with Cole again?"

  "Got thrown in jail,” he said matter-of-factly. "Cole was working as a US Marshall, so he didn't have to work with or for his pa."

  "Why did you get thrown in jail?"

  "Mostly cause I wanted to see him. I knew he had gotten into law. I didn't tell him who I was until about three days later. He finally got fed up and said he was going to call his cousin. I asked which one, Juan Jose or Samuel. I wanted Samuel. Juan Jose knew when he took one look at me."

  "What did Cowboy do?"

  " He was shocked. He thought I had died."

  "You mean he didn’t know you were there that night."

  "Nope, and I kept it that way."

  "Why?"

  "I didn't want to answer the questions about that night. No one knew I was there. So, when they figure I wasn't there, I didn't say anything against what they thought."

  Nodding, Tommy looked like she finally understood all these details for the first time.

  "I stayed for a month. Juan Jose wanted me to stay longer, but I told him I had to go back to my family. He said, ‘You left the first time not knowing where you were going, but now you have a purpose.’ He tried to get me to tell the family. I felt bad for not telling anyway. And told I would only if he got his cousin to tell the Starrys his color. I told him, 'You have had more than ten years to work on him, so don't push it.'"

  "He didn't push often," Tommy stated.

  Sawyer nodded. “I didn't want to hear the truth when I felt bad enough."

  "Why didn't you tell me that you had been back home?"

  "I was going to, but right before I left Cole's, Ma asked me to get Cole out of town, out of Texas, and away from his pa."

  Tommy's face turned red in anger, "You mean she actually was tryin’ to protect him and Izzy. She never had when they were children. Never. I asked Marshall to help him, but he said no because he said Cowboy was a Cooper. Juan Jose helped me after that."

  Sawyer was surprised none of them had ever called Cowboy's family Coopers. Ever. The Coopers were evil. Though Marshall had been a part of their group and friends for years. He had no backbone.

  “I did ask Juan Jose If Cole would be a good fit for us. I just needed to know if Cole could work with Maverick. His pa didn't beat them anymore, but he was still very angry. I guess Rosa thought it was better to get them out."

  "Where did Izzy go?"

  "Colorado, to the new Liberty House there," Sawyer said quietly.

  "He didn't want people to know he was Mexican, and Izzy still can't hide it."

  He shook his head, even though they both knew how hard being half Mexican on Cole was. He added, "Rosa married Marshall."

  "Marryin’ a woman you watched get beat by her man for years," Tommy muttered.

  Sawyer shrugged, "They all went their own ways when Cole got the money."

  Chapter Fourteen

  Tommy smiled a little, her look turning a little softer, "He still is darn good-lookin'. But as a boy, he looked better with dark skin,"

  "He always had dark skin," Sawyer chuckled.

  "True. I told him if he was full white, he wouldn't get married because he wouldn't be handsome anymore. If he didn't get to the beach, I would go fishing with Tiny without him."

  Sawyer grinned, "You told him that?"

  "Yup, he never tried to change it again," She paused, and a sad look crossed her face. "Izzy is one that never talked about the hurt. She did talk to me about him. She asked me if I would always be there to convince Cowboy to like his color. I told her I would."

  "You weren't planning on going anywhere, huh?"

  "Nope. If you had told me, I would have been in Alabama that fall because I wouldn't have believed you." She paused. "I asked Juan Jose once why he didn't leave and be free from the hatred, bitterness, and evil. We would have fallen apart, but he didn't have to stay. You remember that?"

  He nodded. "He said even if he could leave and change his name like Cowboy wanted to, that he would still be Christian Mexican in a very Catholic world, and his aunt still was married to a Cooper. Nothing would change it. He told me everyone has to come to a grip with who they were and what God made them to be and had come to accept it. I know he was talking about Cowboy, but he meant all of us."

  Tommy shrugged. "When did you know you wouldn't see them again?"

  "The overnight drive I went on with the brothers. I looked out at the prairie, all that land, and knew they woul
d never find us." He had cried himself to sleep all the nights on the trail. Andrew had come over and put a hand on his shoulder. It helped beyond words to know he wasn't alone. He felt so afraid, protectin’ a mute sister everyone called mad. “What about you?"

  Tommy looked down. "Christmas Day, it snowed for the first time, and I made a wish. Like Cole always said it would come true if it snowed on Christmas. I knew I would never see them again."

  "Tommy." He met her eyes then she looked away, looking at the ground. "We need to tell them."

  She flinched. "Tell ‘em what?" She asked even though she knew.

  "Tell them about the weather," he snapped. "About the past."

  "No," she said sharply, pulling her coat close like that would stop the cold seeping into her bones. "It's not like I haven't thought about it, but I keep hearin’ what they said-"

  "I know. I feel it too," Sawyer finished for her then asked, "Can you go back knowin' who Cole really is and be alright with that?"

  "Yeah," she said without an ounce of confidence.

  "No, you can't"

  "You do it."

  "But Cole knows who I am, and I know who he is. There's a difference."

  She didn't say anything, just watched as she moved her booted foot back and forth. "You think Cole will like me, knowin’ I was Julia?" she whispered.

  "Tommy, look at me." When she did, he looked her in the eyes. "Cole already likes you. He thought Julia to be dead. Then finds you are alive. He knows you've changed. He has. I know he will like you as Julia Tommy Williams Starry."

  "I won't ever be Julia Williams again," she cried.

  He nodded. "You might not be, but he will still like you, as does the family and they will continue to love you."

  Tommy put her face into her hands and looked at Sawyer. "I can't live without them; I can't have them leave. Like-"

  "Like who, Tommy?" Sawyer asked her harshly. "Like Ma left, like Nanny left, like Cowboy left, like Izzy left, as Pa did, and like Diana did? Even like Pedro leaving? I know that pain hurts more than life itself."